They navigated the distinction -- not always obvious in the Voters' Pamphlet, and even deliberately obscured in some cases -- between essentials and frills. Case in point: the city's voter-owned election system.

Since 2005, the city of Portland has lavished $1.7 million in taxpayer money on council campaigns -- money that could have gone toward police, firefighters and basic services. Instead, it paid for campaign fliers and political advice for nine council candidates.

A frill? Absolutely. But 60 organizations, many of them estimable, backed VOE. Had these backers been able to point to hard evidence of impropriety or undue influence, they could have argued that public financing was needed to mop up the mess.

Problem is, backers had no such evidence. Instead, they argued that taxpayer financing of council races alleviates the perception of undue influence. And mopping up theoretical mud? Well, that did not -- and should not -- rank as a priority problem for voters, especially not when the city budget is being whacked.

Meanwhile, opponents of VOE could point to real dirt. Taxpayer financing, in some cases, has encouraged profligate spending. Some candidates have made illegal, embarrassing or simply questionable purchases with their wad of taxpayer cash. So voters shut off the fun money.

With TriMet's $125 million bond measure, voters faced an even trickier task of discernment. What TriMet wanted to buy -- a bus fleet equipped for an aging population -- isn't a luxury. Nor is it critical to purchase it right this minute, with borrowed funds.

The question for voters was whether approval of borrowing would have flagged on more imprudent spending. TriMet has begun applying the brakes to its runaway benefit costs, and that's good. But it's not quite the same thing as putting the problem in the rear-view mirror.

And even if TriMet had already done that, public borrowing is not the proper way to pay for buses, transit stops and communications equipment. The agency should be setting aside money in an asset-replacement account.

That's what the city ought to have done, too, consistently, for its fire engines and public safety communications system, which is why we opposed the fire bond measure that passed Tuesday.

In that case, though, you can see why voters may have judged it a matter of life and death. Less obvious was the emergency at the Oregon Historical Society.

County voters had the subtlety to discern that it fell to them to keep the society's museum and library -- a treasure for the entire state -- open to the public. The levy approved Tuesday gives the society a five-year reprieve, in which it has promised to seek permanent state funding.

It must. Or face another financial cliff-hanger, this time with an extra obstacle: the wrath of voters.

All in all, voters sent a strong message Tuesday: Public money is at a premium. So give us your basic model, something reliable. Don't try to wow us with tricked-out or souped-up versions of government.

If you do, we will yank you back to reality as only voters can, with "no" votes.